Happy Mind: Meditations from the Ancient World to Modernity

Everyone knows that feeling of being empty and sad inside. Some people feel that on Friday afternoon with the weekend stretching out in front of them and no plans on the calendar. Other people feel that on Sunday night after a weekend with friends or family. Or if you travel a lot, you might feel it when the jet lag has caught up with you and you seem to feel bad for no reason at all. Often if there is a lot of activity or movement or change, there is a chemical shift that occurs in the brain and body to compensate for that and to prepare for something bad that our lower self believes must lie ahead. There is a loss of where you have been or what you have been doing so underlying that hollowed out feeling there likely will be anxiety or fear. But that doesn’t mean those feelings are going to be permanent or that they are an accurate representation of what is happening in the world around you. When these feelings arise you have three choices. You could give up and wallow in it and suffer through it as you wait for it to pass. Obviously this isn’t the best strategy but ying follows yang and whenever one feeling is present, its opposite is nearby, waiting for its turn. So eventually this strategy will work. You could also bring energy and activity into your life and DO things. This is better than doing nothing but it avoids releasing the feelings and dooms you to repeating the pattern so that you will end up running to stay ahead of your imaginary demons your whole life. That isn’t such a good strategy either. Fortunately, there is a better way: you can turn and face the demons, release them and align yourself with perfection. That is what we do in this meditation. And to do that, we are going to employ three foundational principles of the nature of mind: First, 1) The content of your awareness is not you. Second, 2) You can move your awareness. And third, 3) You can hold your awareness where you choose. Recognizing and employing these three principles requires practice, lots of practice. So in addition to helping you feel better today, think of this guided meditation as training for your mind to get better at feeling great more often. Feeling great, having a sense of purpose and an underlying joy in life on a sustained basis doesn’t just happen. We have to practice developing those neural states. Let’s do that now together. If you enjoy these practical guided meditations, you may like to listen to the Serena Podcast (https://goo.gl/Dxu4eo) which provides the theory behind these practices and where we are headed by doing them.